The Tower of London!

Today we were on our way to the Tower of London when we were hit by a crazy downpour for a solid two minutes. Then of course right before we reached the tube station, the rain let up and we were just left in our now soaked jeans (and in my soaked boots). So we had the privilege of sitting on the tube with wet trousers and rain soaked hair, thankfully, once we reached the Tower Hill Tube exit the sun came out a bit and we could air dry.

Now, I already had the opportunity to go to The Tower of London when I visited in the fall of 2013, but it was fun to go again! Fun fact: the Tower of London has been a tourist attraction since the late 17th century and is one of the oldest (man made) visited places in the world! The Tower used to be the place that the royals lived in the early centuries, it also held prisoners of war and large wild animals. But now, the Tower houses the royal jewels, lots of old armor, and of course, the famous Ravens. We spent a good two and a half hours wandering around reading about history. I'm probably going to go on a fact rant and you will probably learn more about the Tower than you will want to know, but history buff here! Since the building of the Tower, it has only been broken into once, and it was by a large group of peasants during the 19th century who were upset about the increase in taxes. The Tower of London is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of Anne Boleyn, the Princes in the Tower, and a Grizzly Bear. *Side note the Princes in the Tower story:  Richard III placed his two young nephews in the tower and rumored to have killed them so that he could become King. He was King for a short period (don't remember how long) but by then the boys had vanished. In recent discoveries of the Tower, they found a chest buried in one of the walls that held the skeletons of two young boys believed to be the two princes. 

 The Tower of London from across the Thames

 Strangely enough if you put all the money together, they form the picture of a shield. 

 Wouldn't be the Tower without a little death right? Although that is a creepy executioner's mask.

I don't think I could describe the size of these Ravens to you, they are enormous. My guess would be is that they are bigger than my head and they are pretty intimidating. When the rest of the wild animals were removed from the Tower to the London Zoo, the Ravens remained and now 6 are typically kept on the grounds at all times. It has been said that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower that England will fall, hopefully that won't happen for a long time.

 The awesome guard standing outside the crown jewels.

Entrance to the Crown Jewels

Unfortunately, they won't let you take any pictures of the inside of the vault, my guess is for security purposes, but you could probably look some of them up online! Fun Fact: The estimated value of the crown jewels (including the gold plates and coronation dining ware) is said to be in excess of $32 billion. 

That was the most exciting thing we did today! I'm pretty worried for church tomorrow! It's going to be a bit of a trip to get there and I'll be on my own, but I think it'll be good for me! Hopefully I'll be able to get out of my comfort zone and meet some new people. School starts on Monday, so that will be fun to get used to as well!